Life in a goldfish bowl fazes most people, but then Jim McGuinness isn’t most people.

While not wishing to make it sound like a chore, McGuinness said last year that managing Donegal was a 40-hour a week job.

Since then he’s taken on a post as a performance coach at Celtic, which involves commuting to Glasgow on a weekly basis.

Donegal start the defence of their All-Ireland title against Tyrone in Ballybofey two weeks from tomorrow with the team, and by extension McGuinness, now attracting more attention than ever on the back of last year’s success.

“It has been a fishbowl situation,” says McGuinness.

“That is when I am most comfortable in life – when I am managing teams and coaching.

“In one sense I haven’t been living in reality for the last four years. It’s training, working with people, trying to develop people, trying to win games and grow as a group, building fitness, strength, strategy, everything.

“We love it and that’s why we do it. It is a very privileged position to be in, managing a team.

“It is an unbelievable privilege to be managing your county. The icing on the cake is if you’re managing your county and you’re being successful. That is the ultimate honour.

“There are a lot of people around the country who have that in front of them. When that day comes, it brings a great sense of pride to everyone related to you, to be able to go to the top level and manage your county. If you can do that and be successful, it’s a very special experience.

“Ultimately, we wouldn’t be successful without the players we have.

“To be working with your Michael Murphys, your Colm McFaddens and now the Patrick McBreartys (inset), who is coming really into form and showing all the signs we hoped he’d bring as an inter-county footballer, watching them developing and maturing all the time... you see the players up close and it’s a great moment in your life.

“It won’t last forever. No management position does as we just found out with Alex Ferguson.”

McGuinness insists retaining the All-Ireland title “isn’t on our radar” and that the same approach from the last two years will be implemented once again. Having such a colossal opening fixture certainly helps to banish notions of looking further down the track.

“Whenever the draw was made, it was a real focuser for everyone. It was really down to earth again after the All-Ireland.

“As a management, it did give us a chance to say that Tyrone was on the horizon for us and it would be a huge challenge against top-quality opposition.

“Thankfully the game is in Ballybofey with our home crowd and the support and atmosphere will be something special.”

Like Ferguson, McGuinness inherited a team with a questionable reputation and turned them into champions. But as much as he enjoys the job, it’s unlikely he’ll match Ferguson’s 26-year stint at the helm.

“I think if I was getting paid five million a year I could do it and squeeze a couple of years out of it!” he jokes. “I was speaking to a fella at Celtic last week and he was saying that even if they weren’t getting paid anything they’d still be playing football. They just love playing football.

“When you’re working with people who want to be there and who want to be the best they can be, improve all the time - and I include all of our top players in that - and have this attitude of ‘I still have weaknesses and want to improve’, it makes the experience very enjoyable.

“It has been a great couple of years. We’re into the face of another Championship now. We don’t know what it’ll hold, but we just know that our approach will be the same.”